What does "catchphrase" mean?

A repeated expression, often originating in popular culture.

Catchphrase

Common synonyms include: catch phrase, catchword, catchword, mantra, signature phrase, signature phrase.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A repeated expression, often originating in popular culture.
"Frequently, catch phrases are not, in the grammarians' sense, phrases at all, but sentences. Catch phrases, like the closely linked proverbial sayings, are self-contained, as, obviously, clichés are too. Catch phrases are usually more pointed and ‘human’ than clichés, although the former sometimes arises from, and often they generate, the latter. Occasionally, catch phrases stem from too famous quotations."
2
a phrase that has become a catchword wordnet
3
A signature phrase of a particular person or group.
"Instead, bro country songs string together a formulaic subset of tropes about beer sipping, truck driving, sunglasses wearing, unpaved roads, and tanned girls in shorts, typically building to a predictable catchphrase singsong chorus."

"You don't even have a catchphrase."

From catch + phrase, from the notion that the phrase will catch in the mind of the user.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.